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1/12/13

The Raptors never trailed against the Charlotte Bobcats, they won every quarter and dominated this basketball game. This should be an exciting glowing re-cap of all that went on last night but because of the final score it will not be 100% positive. Will get to that at the end but let’s talk about the good stuff first.

Normally beating the bobkittens is not cause for celebration in most NBA cities. The simple fact is that Charlotte has had the Raptors number in the recent history of this match-up. They were winners of 7 of last 8 games despite their horrible record over the last 3 years.

It is also a simple fact that if the Raptors want to have people talking seriously about them being a playoff contender they can not afford to lose many if any winnable games. A lose to the Kings was one of those type games.

The Raptors got this done with a team effort in the real sense of the word. Just look at the box score and you see that. Alan Anderson led the team in scoring with just 16 points off the bench. They did it with DeMar DeRozan having a pretty awful night by his standards with just 6 points going 2-8 from the field.

You can go up and down the line-up and no one player stands out in terms of a stat line. You had Landry Fields starting once again and leading the team in rebounds 11 rebounds but just 8 points. Jose Calderon had 15 points and was shooting well but had just 6 assists. Amir Johnson had another solid night with 13 points and 8 assists.

In the end this win was more about defense than it was about the Raptors offense. They held the Bobcats down in the first quarter holding them to 16 points and leading 29-16 after one. They had a complete 48 minute performance on defense no matter who was on the floor. Quincy Acy played some significant minutes in this game and contributed with a couple blocked shots in less than 20 minutes on the floor.

Good news on injury front as well as Terrence Ross was back and showed his ankle is doing just fine as he was set up for a dunk by Kyle Lowry. In the end no Bobcat scored more than 12 points in this one and they were pretty much shutdown by the Raptors.

The Raptors get a 99-78 win and instead of cheers for a great effort from the Raptors we heard a smattering of boos. Yes the Raptors did the horrible injustice of not providing a free slice of pizza for fans. Instead John Lucas III would dribble it out and be satisfied with 21 point victory.

We have done this to death about this Pizza nonsense which is exactly how Jack Armstrong referenced it as it became the only thing in doubt in this game in the final moments. Last season after Stan Van Gundy mocked fans for cheering for a basket while losing to the Magic here we again have to talk about this. Check out the video below it sums it up in a fairly funny rant on my behalf.

This has stopped being a laughing matter though or an isolated incident. MLSE needs to step in and alter this promotion to make it for a more positive goal of holding teams to under a certain number. It should have been done years ago. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen. But it clearly reflects badly on what is a great loyal fan base around the rest of the league.

The players laugh this stuff off and really are not bothered by it. You should be though as it is how you as fans and the city is portrayed around the rest of the league. There is nothing wrong with wanting something free. How you act about it is what problem is. It brings me nothing but joy to run contests for readers of this blog. As a way to say thanks to you for being a reader and supporter it makes me feel great to do so. That said if contests every developed a negative connotation such as this promotion has with the Raptors I would stop it in heartbeat.

If your lucky enough to be able to afford to go to a game. You also have more than enough money to pay for a 3 dollar slice of pizza.

We should be talking about much more important things than this on a fairly regular basis. If your at a game and see one of these people I would suggest you tell them to shut up as they are giving us all a bad name as fans.

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I am always willing to talk with folks for interviews etc. I currently am doing 2 regular radio appearances weekly. But I am always willing to do more stuff large or small. Whatever it is you would like to discuss I will be happy to reply.